Author of ‘The Butcher Boy’ and ‘Breakfast on Pluto’, Patrick McCabe, will feature on this week’s show.
‘Play Next Door’ sees three Irish writers – Fiona Looney, Pat McCabe and Deirdre Purcell – imbedded in a community in Ireland where they live in a local property for a month. After exploring the community, meeting the locals and learning about life in the area, the writer has the challenge of writing a play centred on the town and its inhabitants. This play is then filmed in the property they are staying in, and is televised as the second half of the episode (the first half following the writer’s experiences of living in the community and writing the play).
Last week saw Fiona Looney, columnist, media personality and creator of ‘Celebrity Bainisteoir’, sent to live in Thurles, Co. Tipperary, birthplace of the GAA. Her play was set in a pub in the town that had closed for business. Looney referred to the TV show as ‘a wonderful project.’
This week’s episode sees Pat McCabe go to Castleblaney, Co. Monaghan, known for its fostering of country music. McCabe said he was ‘very taken with the idea’ of the show and that he had ‘never done anything like it before.’ Next week’s episode will see author and former actress Deirdre Purcell go to the seaside town of Bray in County Wicklow, where she will be staying in the Bray Head Hotel in which her debut play will be set.
The production manager of ‘Play Next Door’ is Tony Deegan while the series producer is Gary Flood. Charlie McCarthy was the play director while John Martin was the documentary director. The series received support from the BAI Sound and Vision Fund.
‘Play Next Door’ is produced for RTÉ by VIP (Vision Independent Productions). Run by Managing Director Philip Kampff, the company’s credits include ‘Operation Transformation’ and ‘The Restaurant’. Having only done formats previously, this will be the first drama series VIP has developed.
